As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport.

What a day at the races! The racing Gods certainly played with a few of the main characters on Champion Hurdle day.

We even had a bit of a pantomime villain in the build up with Rich Ricci and perhaps the Mullins team getting plenty of flack for switching Lossiemouth to the easier option in the Mares Hurdle. And was Willie the hero led astray, had he been forced to do wrong by his owner? Was P Townend’s decision to ride State Man a big play in the drama?

Only punters suffered but it felt like there was some karma in the Champion Hurdle in rewarding while ‘Switch Switchy’ had to be happy with his win, surely thinking he’d missed an opportunity to land the big one.

Lossiemouth won the soft option Mares Hurdle in a manner that would leave you to thinking she could have had a big shout in the Champion. Willie Mullins’ interviews dismissed any concerns that it was the Leopardstown fall that was a factor in going for the Mares, more that State Man had worked better than she did, and Townend went with him in the Champion. What was not said was how much owner influence there was in the decision. Owners want Cheltenham winners is the mantra.

The day’s most impressive winner won the easy option but because of that, another mare tried her luck against the big boys and what happened? Fortune favoured the brave. The understatement of the year, “We were here to pick up the pieces!” said a still stunned Lorcan Williams told Lydia Hislop in the TV interview afterwards as the record books record that Golden Ace, bought by her owner Ian Gosden for 12,000gns became the seventh mare to win the hurdling championship. There was a touch of the ‘hairy heeled’ Flakey Dove in 1994 style story here and when all was digested, was it not a great tale – well removed from so many big owner/trainer/expensive purchases that are so dominant now a days?

The last two winners, Constitution Hill and State Man crashed out in spectacular fashion and the other leading contender Brighterdayshead was well beaten before the last and might not have finished in the first three.

Willie Mullins said there would be other races for the rest to take on Lossiemouth and perhaps Aintree will gain a lot with Brighterdayshead having won there last year although she was reported to be sore behind and tied up afterwards by her trainer.

What now for Constitution Hill? His last three races have seen him stand way off a hurdle but get away with it at Kempton, he hit the hurdle but survived on trials day but it was not third time lucky here and he badly misjudged the fourth last and was gone, the winner doing well to avoid him. It’s a risky habit that finally caught him out. State Man’s fall was crazier, he’s never looked like falling in his 19 races and this looked so like Annie Power’s last hurdle fall.

It had all started as planned. First of the short-priced accumulator in the bag after the Supreme. No false start, no jumping issues. The hood helped Kopek Des Bordes. Workahead fell away early on, Romeo Coolio wasn’t good enough and it was William Mummy, it was the colours that kept everyone’s thoughts for their lost friend, to the front of the mind. He tried valiantly in the Barry Connell colours but even with Kopek messing the last, he couldn’t take advantage and it was Paul Townend pointing to his Cork armband and momentarily choked remembering Michael O’Sullivan in the post race interviews. Owner Charlie McCarthy, got it perfect in the interviews:

"To be honest about it, it is a wonderful day for me because Michael O'Sullivan - the race is called after him.

"He lived 20km from me and I will donate this to the O'Sullivan family because he was a wonderful jockey."

The Arkle set the tone for the crazy few hours. Majborough was the banker of the first day bankers and all was well turning in. But he made mess of the second last dragging his hind legs through and stumbling and from the last to the finish, four horses each looked like wining for a few strides. First L'Eau du Sud jumped the last in the lead, then Only By Night hit the front, then it looked like Majborough might fight back before Nico de Boinville got a run out of Jango Baie to fly through in the final strides. It might have been only a five-runner field but it was the most exciting race of the day.

Money won

There was money won on Myretown in the Ultima, according to Lucinda Russell, she didn’t want to run the horse in a vote two days ago. It was a late in the week rush of money saw him go off favourite and put in a great round of jumping to give Partick Wadge one for Scotland. Again, it’s not a race Irish horses win.

Another female trainer got on the scoreboard in the last, the National Hunt Chase as Rebecca Curtis also got the result that was well planned with a good performance from the front rank by Haiti Coleurs.

The race was no longer confined to amateurs, and as Jane Mangan remarked in RacingTV coverage, it was lucky since the pro’s still produced three fallers over the last with fall for Now Is The Hour, bringing down Duffle Coat, and then Hasthing falling at the last.

Joseph O’Brien gave Mark Walsh and J.P. McManus some compensation for Majborough and a third Irish win on the day, winning the Hallgarten And Novum Wines Juvenile Handicap Hurdle with Puturhandstogether going away to a clear-cut success on the run-in on the son of Caravaggio. Yes, this was Cheltenham not Ascot.

On the day there were success for four French-bred though Kopek and Jango Baie had been produced by Irish handlers. Britain took the Champion Hurdle with Golden Horn’s daughter and Myretown Puturhandstogether were Irish-bred.

All in all, it was great drama – who still thinks Galopin Des Champs is a certainty?